European funds are non-repayable funding instruments allocated to the Member States of the European Union in order to bridge the economic and social development gap between them. European funds are managed by the European Commission and by each individual Member State. In Romania, the Ministry of European Funds is the main institution responsible for managing these funds.

European funds are available in Romania, in particular through operational programmes managed by the Ministry of European Funds, the Ministry of Public Works, Development and Administration and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, through the managing authorities.

Four managing authorities operate within the Ministry of European Funds for the following programmes:

• Large Infrastructure Operational Programme – LIOP;
• Human Capital Operational Programme – HCOP;
• Competitiveness Operational Programme – COP;
• Technical Assistance Operational Programme – TAOP.

The following programmes are financed through public institutions:

• Regional Operational Programme – ROP;
• Administrative Capacity Operational Programme – ACOP;
• National Rural Development Programme – NRDP;
• Operational Programme for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs – OPFMA.

Another European fund is the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF), under the management of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

In addition to European funds, grants are another source of non-repayable funding. EEA and Norwegian grants are the contribution of Iceland, the Principality of Liechtenstein and the Kingdom of Norway to reducing economic and social disparities in the European Economic Area and to strengthening bilateral relations with the 15 beneficiary states.

In Romania, between 2018 and 2024, projects can be funded from the EEA and Norwegian grants under 12 funding programmes in the areas of:

• local development, poverty reduction, inclusion of Roma, children and young people at risk, human rights;
• renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy security;
• business development, innovation and SMEs;
• public health;
• research;
• cultural heritage, cultural entrepreneurship and cultural cooperation;
• justice, correctional services, combating domestic and gender-based violence;
• home affairs, police cooperation and fighting crime;
• education, scholarships, apprenticeships and entrepreneurship for young people;
• social dialogue and decent work;
• active citizenship – civil society;
• environment and climate change.

There are many companies and authorised individuals providing support and advice to entrepreneurs for writing and submitting projects to obtain Eu funding, as well as for managing and monitoring such projects during the implementation and post-implementation phase.

The Romanian Government implements various funding schemes through the Ministry of Economy, Energy and the Business Environment in order to support the country’s development, to create and maintain new jobs in the national economy, to integrate the unemployed and graduates into the labour market, to increase the number of newly created SMEs, to increase technological uptake with new, innovative equipment, and to increase the number of SMEs in rural areas.

In Romania, entrepreneurship has been growing in recent years, with increasing numbers of young people choosing to start a business on their own as a valid career alternative. Many of them set off down this path through a start-up business, benefiting from non-repayable funding from the Government.

The Start-up Nation Programme is designed to encourage and stimulate the creation and development of small and medium-sized enterprises and is implemented by the Ministry of Economy, Energy and the Business Environment, in accordance with Government Emergency Ordinance No 10/2017 on boosting the establishment of new small and medium-sized enterprises.

Apart from the funding programme for start-ups, there are other forms of business financing, such as:

• microgrants;
• working capital grants;
• investment grants;
• Female Entrepreneurs programme;
• Trade and Market Services programme;
• micro-industrialisation programme;
• UNCTAD/EMPRETEC programme;
• arts and crafts programme.

At the same time, in order to encourage agricultural activities, the Romanian State makes transitional national aid available to farmers from the national budget in both the crop-growing, and the livestock-farming sectors. Other types of State aid financed from the national budget and allocated through APIA include: state aid for diesel used in agriculture, state aid in the livestock-farming sector, etc.